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View Poll Results: Please vote for the story you like best by December 31st.

Big congrats Mark, I liked your story very much and voted for it in both rounds.

Thanks to everyone who read my story and voted for it, I am actually quite chuffed with getting 3rd place in my first year of being involved.

And thanks to the organisers, it's been fun ( I am pretty sure most of the gripes were tongue in cheek ).

Bring on the next one

So you wrote "The Story of Remembering"? That was very good. I took my time deciding between that one and "Forever Young." It was close.

"I like "Kim and Me" a great deal, too, but some parts of it I found a bit confusing. I'm not sure if I didn't read it closely enough, and I haven't gone back to see. It was good, anyway.

Do any of the authors care to come forward yet??? I am dying of curiosity here!!!

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka

Thank you very much to all sixty-odd who took the time to read the stories and vote. That was a damn close-run thing, and I'm delighted to have won by a nose, whilst being fully aware that - when it's that close - it's practically a toss-up. If the voting had carried on another day, I could just as easily have been one behind.

Can I just address this 'professional writer' thing? First, I guess it depends what you mean by professional. I've never made a living from writing - I've always had a 'proper job'. And I haven't written anything for money for over a decade. I might try to go back to it this year. But the point is, these days I write on a whim.

So it might be more relevant to say that I'm a published writer. Thing is though, being published doesn't necessarily make you a shoo-in for this kind of game. I know many published writers who'd struggle to write a story for this contest, just as I know many unpublished writers who are naturals for it. So I don't think I'm at any advantage in the contest because I've been published. I think being published and doing well in the contest are both effects of the same cause - which is that I wrote something that readers liked.

The question really, I suppose, is do we want a new rule saying that the competition is open only to unpublished writers? The organisers could easily make such a rule - the only slight problem would be defining 'published'. But in principle, it's easy to do.

Thank you Mark, I know you didn't have to give an explanation; but it was darn big of you to do it and you have my admiration. I truly didn't think of your win with bitterness; I was very impressed with last years story and this one was great also...just alittle intense for my personal tastes.
Now personally, about the only writing I do is phone numbers on my palm and love letters on public bathrooms; but as I had once heard that you were a columnist for several of the well known New York City and British magazines and had published several books, I would have been horribly intimidated as one of the many who, as Fitzgerald once said, "paper my walls with rejection slips".
By the way, on another note, I recently saw your picture on a publicity page and I will vote for you next year (if I'm not voting for my accounts of my failed marriages and writing experiences) based entirely on your picture...I am voting for a removal of the mask here here...does anyone want to see Marks real face...He's really really handsome!

Originally Posted by Jack of Hearts

Well, given the anonymity of the internet, we're all just assuming the other authors aren't 'professional' or 'published' authors. Maybe the author of Kim and Me is a very bored Joyce Carol Oates come to troll us on these forums.

So we can't possibly regulate that. But what's more important is that if we implement that rule anyway we can single Mark out and drop a lil' bit of hate on him. And that would be very cathartic. We could just rephrase the new rule for convenience's sake: The competition is open to all forum members with 100 posts or more and who are not MarkBastable.

J

Very Funny Jack, seriously, I only persecute those I love...ask my daughter...how about it Silent?

Originally Posted by Scheherazade

I have to start by saying that I am rather disappointed to see that a thread which remains open to congratulate the winner of 2011 Competition has turned into an inexplicable display of bitterness.

This competition is open to all members who have accumulated 100 or more posts. If we are to consider adding limitations on participation and voting, should we also consider banning native speakers because ESOL speakers like myself can very easily claim that those who are native speakers have an unfair advantage over us? How about writers voting for themselves? Or friends and family voting for them?

It would be impossible for us to "police" all these criteria and, demonstrating mutual trust and honesty, we will be able to carry on with minimal restrictions on the stories and contributors.

As it was mentioned above, the only thing we object to is members creating multiple accounts (which is a bannable-offence on its own as well) to be able to vote repeatedly in the competition, which is the reason why the voting cannot be annonymous. I am glad to add that this has happened only couple of times since the competition started.

I would also like to remind that I am not at liberty to reveal the identity of the contributors. If they choose to do so, they will, I am sure, come forward themselves.

I hope my post will lay some of the issues raised to rest so that we can now offer Mark the congratulations he deserves and look forward to reading more stories both by him and other members who are willing to take the challenge in 2012.

I submit myself humbly to the tar, feathers and whips and I will try not to enjoy them...Can I write about it though?

I'm rather lost in this big thread, too much to read for the working class! but wanted to congratulate you warmly, MarkBastable, for your perfect short story. Although I finally voted for the one which lost by one voice (who wrote it?), I admired all the finalists' ideas and art that certainly left me with my mouth open. Naturally, I dream the day I can write one short story myself (but that will probably have to wait for another reincarnation)...

So congratulations to you and all who attempted and achieved here involving, well built, short stories!

Brilliant story again MarkBastable. I preferred the Icarus story, but this was still better (in my opinion) than any of the others this year. Maybe Kim and Me was too confusing for me? I may hope to give you a run for your money next year.

No, why? Don't you think that looking at poll results before you vote has an influence?
Okay then, maybe you're thinking that I am a sore loser because I voted for a story that got the least votes so far? I am willing to listen to
honesty and criticism.

No, I was talking about how the voting pattern of this competition was like a Cold War Canada vs Russia game.

(brutal, high scoring, neck and neck all throughout)

Well done, Bastable.

Last edited by JuniperWoolf; 01-06-2012 at 02:27 AM.

__________________"Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
-Pi

Well, given the anonymity of the internet, we're all just assuming the other authors aren't 'professional' or 'published' authors. Maybe the author of Kim and Me is a very bored Joyce Carol Oates come to troll us on these forums.

So we can't possibly regulate that. But what's more important is that if we implement that rule anyway we can single Mark out and drop a lil' bit of hate on him. And that would be very cathartic. We could just rephrase the new rule for convenience's sake: The competition is open to all forum members with 100 posts or more and who are not MarkBastable.

J

This was purely cheeky/teasing and aimed at Mark's post.

Thanks for sharing a great story Mark, congratulations on your deserved win, and yes your story from last year was amazing too.

Hopefully any miscommunication hasn't dissuaded you from entering in the future. The contest would lose something if you didn't- and we'd all lose the opportunity to read some really great stories (and healthy competition).

It would be very nice if the other entrants--all worthy!--were to re-post their stories in separate threads. By doing so, the rest of the LitNetters can offer them the praise that is definitely their due as well as offering constructive comments which might help them in subsequent competitions.